Last updated on 28 September 2023
If you want to add cool effects to your videos, you may want to know how to speed up in DaVinci Resolve.
The method is quite simple, and after you have your footage in place, there are only a few buttons you need to press.
Let’s go ahead and look at the easiest method you can use to speed up footage with this DaVinci Resolve tutorial.
Quick rundown
It’s super simple to speed up a clip in DaVinci Resolve.
- Just go to the “Edit” tab
- Right-click on your footage
- Click on “Change Clip Speed“. Choose the speed you want, and that’s it!
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Changing the speed in DaVinci Resolve
1. Add your media to the project
From the “Media” screen, you can search for the location of your footage and then import it.
Additionally, you can click “Ctrl+I” on your keyboard, which will open the “Import” screen, and you will be able to select your desired video.
2. Create your timeline
To start working on your footage, you need to create a timeline. You can do that by going into the “Cut” tab and then dragging and dropping your footage to the timeline.
You may also get a prompt asking if you want to change the timeline settings to match the video settings.
3. Move to the “Edit” tab
In the “Edit” tab you can change pretty much everything about your video, so that’s where you want to be. Just click on the “Edit” tab at the bottom of the screen.
4. Change the speed of the video
In the “Edit” tab, you can:
- Simply right-click on your footage
- Select the “Change Clip Speed” option.
- In the next prompt, you will be able to change the speed, the number of frames and duration.
You need to keep in mind at this point that not all videos can be sped up, and you need to have a relatively high number of frames to have a smooth and fast video.
Video tutorials
Simple speed change
Speed raming in DaVinci Resolve
Speed ramping is a technique where you can smoothen the transition between slow and fast, or vice versa. It essentially gives a motion of slowing down or speeding up.
Here is an example of speed ramping:
Top Tips
Use multiples of your framerate
If the video is 30fps, you will want to stick to multiples of 30 to avoid frame jumping. Frame jumping is where the video doesn’t play smooth and appears jumpy.
Speeding up video
When speeding up your video, you don’t need to worry about this too much as there are loads of frames to smoothen out the jumpiness as it squashes them altogether. But it’s still good practice to use multiples as on some occasions, you can see jumping going on.
Slowing down the speed of the video
When slowing down the speed of your video, it’s very important to stick to multiples of your project & footage frame rate. If you don’t, you will see some sort of jumping going on and your footage will not be nice to watch.
First, make sure you have enough frames to slow down too. If your timeline is 30fps and you want to slow your footage down to half speed, you will need a 60fps clip to do this. Once it’s slowed down by half, the video will play at 30fps, which slots perfectly for the 30fps project framerate. Thus, making a smooth video.
If you slow your video down, make sure you have enough frames
In general, it’s best to have a video recorded at a high framerate if you want to slow it down. This way, you can avoid duplicated or missing frames, and your final video will be as smooth as possible.
Changing clip duration
If you also want to change the duration of your footage after you applied all the settings, you can right-click again on your timeline and select “Change Clip Duration” or click “Ctrl+D” on your keyboard. That will allow you to only change the duration without affecting the framerate or speed, and it can be very useful if you just need a video that’s one second shorter.
But these are the basics, and now you know how to speed up in DaVinci Resolve. It’s definitely not hard, and in time, you will get to figure out exactly how your footage needs to be for the best results.
Final words
If you are interested in learning more about DaVinci Resolve, please see our DaVinci tutorials.
